[And will Jewish communities be shocked enough to wake up from the
“fantasy Israel” dream and realize the danger of present-day
Israel, not only to Palestinians but to Jews and Judaism as well? ]
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SOCIO-POLITICAL FORMATIONS BEHIND ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENT  
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Ilan Pappe
January 6, 2023
Palestine Chronicle
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_ And will Jewish communities be shocked enough to wake up from the
“fantasy Israel” dream and realize the danger of present-day
Israel, not only to Palestinians but to Jews and Judaism as well? _

A cabinet meeting of the new Israeli government. , Prime Minister of
Israel's TW Page

 

 

Two months after the election of the new government of Israel, the
blurred picture is becoming more transparent, and it seems one can
offer some more informed insights about its composition,
personalities, and possible future policies and reaction to them.

It would not be an exaggeration to define Benjamin Netanyahu as the
least extreme member of this government, which tells you about the
personalities and policies of all the others.  

There are three major groups in the government, and I am not referring
here to various political parties, but rather to socio-political
formations.

ZIONIZATION OF ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWS

In the first group are the ultra-orthodox Jews, both the European and
Arab Jews orthodoxies. What characterizes them is the process of
Zionization they underwent since 1948. 

From a marginal role in politics, only for the sake of their
communities, they belong now to the captains of this new state. From
being moderate and adhering to sacred Jewish precepts that do not
allow Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land, they now emulate the
Israeli secular right: supporting colonization in the West Bank, the
siege on the Gaza Strip, employing racist discourse towards the
Palestinians where they are, advocating harsh and aggressive policies
and, at the same time, trying to take over the public space and
Judaize it, according to their own strict version of Judaism.

The only exception is Neturei Karata, loyal to their long-term
anti-Zionism and solidarity with the Palestinians.

NATIONAL RELIGIOUS JEWS

In the second group are the national religious Jews, mostly living in
colonies, on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank, and
recently creating “learning centers” of settlers in the midst of
mixed Arab-Jews towns in Israel.

They support both the criminal policies of the Israeli army and the
actions by settler vigilantes that harass Palestinians, uprooting
their orchards, shooting at them, and disputing their way of life. 

Their aim is to give both the army and these vigilantes a freer hand
in oppressing the occupied West Bank, with the hope of pressuring more
Palestinians to leave. This group is also the backbone of the Israeli
secret service command and dominates the cadre of senior officers in
the army. 

The two groups mentioned so far share the wish to impose stricter
apartheid inside Israel against the 48 Arabs and, at the same time,
begin a crusade against the LGBT community while demanding a more
strict marginalization of women in the public space.

They also share a messianic vision and they believe they are now in a
position to implement it. At the center of this vision is the
Judaization of sacred sites that are now “still” Islamic or
Christian. The most coveted site is Haram al-Sharif. 

The first precursor was the provocative visit by the Minister of
National Security Itamar Ben Gvir to the Haram. The next step will
come on Passover, with an attempt to fully invade the Haram with
Jewish prayers and ministers. Similar actions will be taken in Nablus,
Hebron, and Bethlehem. How far they will go is difficult to predict. 

MARGINALIZATION OF LIKUD’S SECULAR JEWS

The second group also has representatives in the major party of the
government, the Likud. But most of the Likud members are part of a
third socio-political group: the secular Jews who are also adhering to
traditional Jewish practices. 

They try to distinguish themselves by claiming that economic and
political liberalism is still an important pillar in the Likud’s
political platform. Netanyahu used to be one of them but now seems to
desert them when it comes to dividing the spoils, namely marginalizing
them in the government. He needs the others more than his own party,
to avoid trial and remain in power.

THE ZIONIST PROJECT

The prominent members of all these groups arrived with pre-prepared
legislation initiatives and policies: all of them, without any
exception, are meant to allow an extreme right-wing government to
dispense of whatever has remained of the charade called the Israeli
democracy.

The first initiative already began, sterilizing the judicial system in
such a way that it could not, if it ever wished to, defend the rights
of minorities in general or that of the Palestinians more
specifically.

To be honest, all the previous Israeli governments were informed by
this overall disregard for the civil and human rights of Palestinians.
This is just a phase of making it more constitutional, more
mainstream, and more apparent, without any attempt to hide the aim
behind it: to have as much historical Palestine as possible with as
few Palestinians in it as possible.

However, if this materializes in the future, it will take Israel
further into its neo-Zionist destiny; namely, the truthful fulfillment
and maturation of the Zionist project: a ruthless settler colonial
project, built on apartheid, ethnic cleansing, occupation,
colonization and genocidal policies. 

A project that, so far, escaped any significant rebuke from the
Western world and one which is tolerated by the rest of the world,
even if it is censured and rejected by many in the global civil
society. So far, it is only due to Palestinian resistance and
resilience that it failed to be triumphant.

END OF ‘FANTASY ISRAEL’

This new reality brings to the fore a series of questions, that one
has to ask, even if at the moment we cannot answer them. 

Will the Arab and Muslim governments, which only recently joined the
immunization of this travesty, realize that it is not too late to
change course?

Will new governments of the Left, such as the one elected in Brazil,
be able to lead the way for a change of attitude from above that would
reflect democratically the one that is demanded from below?

And will Jewish communities be shocked enough to wake up from the
“fantasy Israel
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dream and realize the danger of present-day Israel, not only to
Palestinians but to Jews and Judaism as well?

These are questions that are not easy to answer. What we can stress
is, once more, a call for Palestinian unity so as to enhance the
struggle against this government and the ideology it represents. 
Such unity would become a compass for a powerful global front that is
already there, thanks to the BDS movement, and is willing to continue
its work of solidarity and enhance it further and wider: galvanizing
governments, as well as societies, and bringing back Palestine to the
center of global attention.

The three components of the new Israeli government did not always
coexist easily; so there is also a possibility of an earlier political
collapse since all in all we are talking about a group of incompetent
politicians when it comes to running such an intricate economy as the
Israeli one. Probably, they will not be able to arrest the high
inflation, rise in prices, and swelling unemployment. 

However, even if this is going to happen, there isn’t an alternative
fourth socio-political group that can lead Israel. So, a new
government would be formed by another combination of the same forces,
with the same intent and policies. 

We should treat this as a structural challenge, not a one-off, and
prepare for a long struggle, based on even more enhanced international
solidarity and tighter Palestinian unity. 

This rogue government, and what it represents, will not be there
forever; we should do all we can to shorten the wait for its
replacement with a much better alternative not only for the
Palestinians but also for the Jews, and everyone else that resides in
historical Palestine. 

 
_- Ilan Pappé is a professor at the University of Exeter. He was
formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of
Haifa. He is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The
Modern Middle East, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two
Peoples, and Ten Myths about Israel. Pappé is described as one of
Israel’s 'New Historians' who, since the release of pertinent
British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, have been
rewriting the history of Israel’s creation in 1948. He contributed
this article to The Palestine Chronicle._

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